Meditation techniques can help to break the vicious cycle linking poor sleep and chronic health problems according to a new research study involving patients at The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine.
The paper published in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine asks ‘Can improvements in sleep be used as an indicator of the wider benefits of Autogenic training and CAM research in general?’. CAMLIS library members can read the whole paper here.
After completing a course of Autogenic Training the majority reported ‘significant improvements’ which included falling asleep quicker, getting back to sleep quicker after waking during the night and feeling more refreshed in the morning with better energy.
Autogenic Training (AT) is a structured meditative practice: a sequence of simple mental exercises which bring about profound mental and physical relaxation. The exercises allow the mind to calm itself by switching off the body’s stress response and switching on functions which repair, restore and renew making it an effective preparation for sleep.
Report author Dr Ann Bowden who leads the Autogenic Training service is a physician with a strong interest in complementary medicine.
She said: “AT takes the focus of attention away from symptoms or underlying problems and anxieties. Although they are still there the patient’s experience of them is changed, they can develop a new and better relationship with their symptoms that can have a long term impact on intractable and chronic conditions. It helps patients to understand themselves better and to recognise connections between emotions, ill-health and sleeping problems”
Chronic symptoms can cause functional, physiological and cognitive impairment similar to those experienced as a result of prolonged stress. It is often these problems rather than an underlying sleep problem that make patients seek help.
More than 150 patients completed the full AT course. Although insomnia was not the main presenting complaint around 60% of patients reported that they had sleeping problems. By not addressing sleep problems specifically during the course AT offers a more holistic approach, improvements in sleep being part of improvements in general health.
AT fits in with current NICE guidelines which recommend that behavioural approaches are considered before prescribing a hypnotic.
Around 300 patients are referred by GPs or colleagues within the UCLH Trust.
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